Transcript

A disaster assessor in Papua New Guinea says food security is very precarious for many communities in parts of the Highlands due to the current drought.

Severe frosts in August combined with the ongoing drought has placed a huge strain on livelihoods which sustain communities in Western Highlands, Southern Highlands, Hela and Enga provinces.

A disaster assessor, Matthew Kanua, has just completed assessments in these provinces and says the staple crop, sweet potato, has been decimated in the higher altitudes where food shortages are well advanced.

MATTHEW KANUA: If they don't get any supplies in the next two to four weeks, a lot more people will be moving out, I think. Some people have already migrated to other parts of the Highlands, and others who don't have relatives elsewhere are stuck there. Lots of bush fires... that's the situation up there. it's pretty bad; anything above 2300 metres above sea level, I would say they're really bad. We've gone right across Hela province, in those very remote, high altitude areas, and Southern Highlands and Enga (provinces). And I think they need immediate assistance up there.

JOHNNY BLADES: Do you see that assistance is being deployed at the moment by provincial governments, national government?

MK: Well I've asked a number of people, they have not received anything yet at this stage. But there are some promises - it's been in the newspaper, there's been some talk. So far no relief assistance has gone in, especially in the Enga, Southern Highlands and Hela provinces.

JB: These provinces are actually quite populated, aren't they? There's a lot of people up in these remote areas who need the help?

MK: Yeah, look, they're quite populated areas. So I'm in the process of writing up this report and I came down with the flu, breathing all the dust up there. So I'm trying to manage my health as well as write the report. But yes they are quite heavily populated, very remote. Poverty is the main thing up there. There are no road linkages there. You could walk for days to get into the most remote parts of the area.

JB: You've been assessing the impact for a church group, is that right?

MK: Yes, that's right. I was contracted by United Church of Papua New Guinea. They have churches, parishes in some of the most remote parts of the Highlands, and so they were concerned. They were concerned after getting some initial reports that their parishes were affected. And the churches operate within a wider community so what the church thought was it might be better if you did an assessment with the co-operation of the church people but, you know, looking at the wider community. So this is what I did.

JB: The food security problem you mentioned, is it just potato up there? Corn can't be grown at those higher altitudes and things like that, is that right?

MK: well, you might find a few other crops there. You might have found a few bananas or corn, but you're pushing them too much up at beyond 2300 metres. There's a few other things going: they've got some village chickens, fish ponds, but most of the food comes from the sweet potato gardens, and a bit from the wild: things like harvest from the pandanus in the bush, that kind of thing. Fundamentally, it's a sweet potato economy. everything revolves around sweet potato and pigs. The situation they're going through now, a number of people are culling their pigs, to reduce competition for the available food in the community. So the food security situation is really at stake now. It's is a very desperate situation. They need to be assisted very, very quickly.